Manchester United were ready to pay £100m for Gareth Bale in the summer but
failed because Tottenham wanted to offload Emmanuel Adebayor

Manchester United attempted to hijack Real Madrid’s £85 million deal to sign Gareth Bale in the final two weeks of the summer transfer window, with Tottenham Hotspur using the opportunity to try to offload Emmanuel Adebayor to the Premier League champions.

In a series of phone calls – and also at least one face-to-face meeting – between high-level officials from both clubs, United indicated they would bid around £100 million for Bale if he could be persuaded to give up his dream of joining the Spanish club.

At the time, United were desperate to land at least one marquee signing in the summer as a sign of intent with manager David Moyes newly arrived as the successor to Sir Alex Ferguson and with a new executive vice-chairman in Ed Woodward.

Bale had already rejected tentative approaches from Paris Saint-Germain having set his heart on a move to Real Madrid, who had been talking to Tottenham since May. United simply left it too late, which raises further questions over their transfer strategy last summer.

Spurs never believed that Bale would prefer to join United, who they host at White Hart Lane today, and were also highly reluctant to do business with a fellow Premier League club, not least because of the previously fractious history of deals between the two.

Any move would also play badly with the club’s supporters and chairman Daniel Levy was acutely aware of the sensitivities around selling Bale, especially after both Michael Carrick and Dimitar Berbatov had joined United in recent seasons.

Nevertheless, during informal talks which began directly after Spurs’ opening league game of the season away against Crystal Palace on Aug 18, there was a suggestion that United might be persuaded to take Adebayor to Old Trafford if it meant they could sign Bale.

Adebayor was told in the summer he was surplus to requirements at Spurs where he is the club’s highest-earner – he is reported to earn around £140,000 a week – but has been a huge disappointment after agreeing a permanent deal following a season-long loan from Manchester City.

Spurs hope to move Adebayor on in the January transfer window and have identified United striker Javier Hernandez – or possibly Real Madrid’s Álvaro Morata – as an ideal replacement as they plan to improve their attacking options having scored just nine Premier League goals so far this season.

In the end, United did not submit a formal bid for Bale – partly because they had received little encouragement that one would succeed, but also because they did not want to be seen to fail in such a high-profile move having already failed to sign Cesc Fabregas from Barcelona.

Spurs eventually received a world-record bid from Real Madrid for Bale, with the Spanish giants paying £5 million more than the £80 million they paid United to sign Cristiano Ronaldo in 2009.

In the end United’s only big-money signing was Marouane Felliani from Moyes’s former club Everton for £27 million, although the midfielder has so far struggled to live up to that price-tag and is yet to score a goal for his new club.

United are expected to be busy during the January window with a new offer for Athletic Bilbao midfielder Ander Herrera, who they also tried to sign in January, likely. The Spaniard is keen to join United and Moyes is desperate to strengthen his midfield.

United have continued a dialogue with the Spanish club over the 24-year-old but will still not meet the buy-out clause in his contract which is thought to be £36 million. A bid of 20 million plus £3 million in add-ons was rejected in August.